Moon in June 5K





Burlington ON

Bib # 260

Chip time: 23:31

Official time 23:37

Pace 4:44

Place 77/752

Gender Place 13/457

Category Place 3/89



The Moon in June holds a special place in my heart. Not because my 5K PB was run there last year but because it was all of the Facebook status updates regarding it in 2011 that got me running. At that point in my life I was 40 and still looking for a way to fit some sort of fitness into my life other than my twice a day walks with the dog. I saw a few mentions of the local 5K race and I thought that I would love to get back into running, so with some advice from my friend Sarah I signed up for the Learn to Run clinic at the Running Room and the rest is history.

My goal going into the race this year was a 22:xx finishing time. I wasn't sure if I could do it and to be honest I was kind of nervous about it. 4:30kms are fast but I'd do my best. Then race day came and with two naps under my belt I realized that I was not feeling that great and 22:xx probably wouldn't happen. My new goal was to run my ass off and at least get a sub 25min time. That I figured was doable. I was meeting Patty & Emma at 8:30pm so around 8:15pm I peeled myself away from the movie Roadhouse which was on tv (my husband is amazed that I have never seen this movie before. Now I have seen half.) and headed downtown. As I drove there I started to notice that the peppers that were in the salad that I had for dinner were starting to repeat on me. Just like at ATB. AND I had on the same skirt as I had worn at ATB. Please don't let me have any gastro issues again I thought! I met the girls (and Patty's husband Greg who was running his first race ever) and we did a warm up run to Kelly's Bake Shop where we met up with friends, Sarah, Mari, Laura, Sabrina & Cam. I did not put two & two together as to who Cam was and it was a big joke when at the end of the night I secretly whispered to Sarah "Who the hell is this guy and why does he seem to know me?!". I'm not always the sharpest knife in the drawer. We had a quick picture taken with a few random people that I've never met before and headed over to the start line.

Photo courtesy of Mari. In the middle in their matchy matchy tops are Laura & Sabrina, Emma, me, Greg & Patty.

Patty and I made our way fairly close to the front as we were both hoping to age place. I came third in my AG last year but didn't realize it until the next day. Hint, if you want to age place get as close as you can to that start line. I did end up placing and the girl who came in behind me actually had a 2 second faster chip time but a slower official time. Snooze ya lose! The gun went off and I immediately lost Patty in the crowd. We blazed our way down Brant and onto Lakeshore where the spectators eventually fizzled out. *sad face* I tried not to pay too much attention to my Garmin and just ran as fast as I could without killing myself. 1KM done and 4:21 flashed up on my Garmin. I was feeling ok but should probably slow down. 2KM done and 4:43 flashed up and I was starting to get tired. I wasn't really thirsty but I let myself have a quick drink at the water station just to give my legs a rest. 3K beeped and 5:00 was showing on my watch. ARG stupid water break that I didn't need! Shortly after this there was a small turnaround and I spied Patty. Seeing her so close to me gave me a little extra pep and I told myself to just gut it out. I could do it. Only 2K left. Ten minutes. I could feel my legs getting heavy and I thought to myself that this was an exact copy of last years Moon in June. I came back up onto Brant and just kept the girl who was right ahead of me in my sights. I knew that I wouldn't be able to pass her but if I could just keep pace with her I'd be fine. 4K beeped and 4:53 came up. I was trying to do the math to figure out what my finishing time could be but my mind would only work on keeping my legs moving. The girl ahead of me sped up so I sped up, being pulled along by an invisible rope. I heard someone coming up behind me in what sounded like VFFs so I turned my head slightly expecting to see Patty blaze by. It wasn't Patty, but this girl did whiz by me. I could see the finish line ahead of me and did the old 1 1/2 times around the track. One time around the track. Half a lap around the track. Breaking the distance up in my head like that always helps. I saw my friend Nicky on the same corner as last year. She didn't see me, or maybe she did and didn't want to yell out to me because I looked like hell, who knows. LOL Finally the finish line came and the race was over with my final km split 4:40. I saw 23:37 on the clock and couldn't believe that after all of that suck I had managed to pull off a PB! Yay! Sarah & Mari waved to me and Mari yelled "I told you you'd get 22!". "I didn't" I yelled back and followed the crowd around the corner where my mouth was so dry that when I tried to spit I ended up with it all down myself. Twice. All of a sudden my tummy didn't feel well so I went over to the porta potties behind City Hall and vomited. Just like my teenage years! I felt a little better after that and turned to see Patty coming around the corner. "I just puked" I said to her. "Yeah, so did I" she said. We are so frickin' sexy! I went and grabbed some water and a couple of cookies which helped my tummy feel better (cookies make everything better) and went to find Sarah & Mari. I showed off the time on my Garmin while trying to not breath my barf breath in anyones face and then Patty &  Emma came and showed everyone that they had also gotten PB's too. Lucky Emma got hers without vomiting! We then went to find the posted results and saw that all three of us had placed third in our age groups! Yay us! I ended up getting second because the masters winner came out of my AG so that was an even bigger surprise. After we froze our butts off waiting for our awards (the girls got lawn ornaments, I got a backpack full of stuff that I already have LOL) we made our way back to our cars and said goodbye. I went home, got a high five from my husband who was sick in bed and went to sleep, only to wake up in the morning and realize that I didn't throw up from running the night before, I threw up because I had caught my coworkers stomach bug! BOO!

Photo courtesy of Patty.

Next up; this Saturday I am running the Georgina 10 miler with Patty to celebrate her birthday and then on Monday my half marathon training plan that Nicole has shared with me starts. I'm looking forward to the Daniels training plan that we will be following. It looks challenging so switching things up will be nice. Hopefully I'll be feeling better by then. Wish me luck!